


Fingers In Noses

by magicsophicorn



Series: Three's not a crowd (until the Charmings arrive) [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-19 09:38:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4741550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina takes a moment to appreciate her family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Regina didn't notice the single tear that slid down her cheek as she took in the sights and sounds that surrounded her.

Her youngest daughter, two year old Isabella, was sitting on her lap singing softly to herself as Regina ran her fingers through her beautiful golden curls.

Ruby was laying on her back on the floor, their four year old daughter Liliana sitting on her stomach. They were engaged in a furious tickle fight. Emma was sitting beside them and appeared to be switching sides at random, she would alternate between tickling the two. Regina thought the giggling squeals coming out of Liliana's mouth were one of the most beautiful sounds she had ever heard.

Henry had somehow managed to fold his gangling limbs into the easy chair in the corner, and was frowning in concentration at his text book. Regina swore that every time he came home from college for the holidays he was a bit taller. Surely he should have stopped growing by now?

Watching them all made her heart both clench and expand at the same time.

She would never be able to stop being grateful that she could finally have this. 

Love.

She loved Ruby and Emma and their children with all her heart, and she knew that they all loved her in return. 

Her beautiful little family.

Her pack.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by two little fingers suddenly being shoved up her nostrils.

"Aaah!" Regina spluttered, wrapping her hand round her daughter's wrist and gently removing her fingers from her nose.

"Bella, what have we told you about that?" Regina asked, her voice as stern as she could manage when faced with those adorable doe eyes.

Isabella looked down at her hands and pulled guiltily at her fingertips. Regina could hear giggling from across the room and was pretty sure it was no longer due to the tickle fight. She deliberately kept her focus on Isabella though.

"No fingers in noses, sorry Mami," Isabella mumbled before sighing dramatically, as though she felt she had just been denied the world's greatest pleasure.

"That's right sweetheart, and thank you for saying sorry."

Isabella looked back up at her then, her face slightly defiant.

"But Ma puts her fingers in her nose, I seen her!"

All eyes in the room turned towards Emma, who was rapidly turning a bright shade of pink.

"I don't… I… All right, fine. Busted. But hey, at least I don't eat them like she does!"

A chorus of groans and disgusted noises echoed round the room.

"You said not to tell Mami that!" Isabella said with a confused frown.

Emma chuckled. "You rat me out, I rat you out. That's just the way it goes kidlet."

Regina stood, lifting Isabella as she did so and resting her on her hip. She was pretty sure that had all gone way over Isabella's head, but that still wasn't the kind of thing she wanted their daughter learning. She gave Emma a pointed a glare.

"Why don't we go and cook start cooking dinner Bella-bear? Hmm?"

Isabella nodded enthusiastically. "I help!"

Just as Regina turned and began to head towards the kitchen she heard Henry call out from behind her.

"Uh, maybe make her wash her hands first Mom!"

Regina chuckled. As if she needed to be told that. Isabella hugged her tightly round the neck, and Regina wouldn't have been surprised if she was sticking her tongue out at her brother over her shoulder.

Her family might not be the cleanest, or the most normal, but she wouldn't change them for the world.


	2. Can you keep a secret?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulofsilence on Tumblr asked for a fic about why Bella likes sticking her fingers up people's noses. This is the answer! This is a prequel to the previous chapter.

Henry leaned back in his chair and sighed. This essay was going nowhere. Who cared what Shakespeare thought about the monarchy anyway? How would that help him become a better writer?

Having to write essays over the holidays SUCKED. Not only would he much rather spend his time back in Storybrooke working on his sword fighting skills with Gramps, but it was also really hard to concentrate at home with his little sisters running around.

Right now for instance, Liliana was currently in her wolf form and chasing Isabella around the house, much to her delight. Every few minutes they would run past his doorway like a miniature episode of Scooby Doo or something.

Henry threw his pen down on the pad of paper in frustration. It was no good, it was time to give up for the night. His mind made up, Henry instantly felt himself relax. Maybe he'd go watch some Netflix.

He sniffed and scratched the side of his nose, but he could still feel a blockage so he shoved a finger up his nostril and began to dig around.

"Why you got your finger up your nose?" A little voice said, disturbingly close to his ear.

Henry turned his head to the side, finger still in his nose, eyes wide and guilty. Busted.

Bella's face was centimetres from his, and she was looking up at him with intense curiosity.

He couldn't tell her the truth. Mom would kill him if she started picking her nose instead of using a tissue. After all, she'd only just been trained out of licking it on those oh so frequent and disgusting occasions when her snot dribbled all the way down to her mouth. But then he currently had his finger up his nose, so maybe he shouldn't judge. He removed his finger and wiped it on his jeans.

"Uh… Well… Can you keep a secret?"

Bella nodded enthusiastically. She loved the concept of secrets and was actually surprisingly good at keeping them (which Henry had a sneaking suspicion was largely just because she forgot everything a few days after hearing it).

"The secret is that it's magic! But you mustn't tell anyone."

Bella's face lit up like a Christmas tree. She had only recently learned that she was able to do magic. It had been the cause of a bit of an argument amongst his moms as to whether they should even tell her about her magic, let alone teach her how to use it. Ruby had wanted her to start learning right away, so that she never had to feel out of control, but Regina on the other hand didn't want to expose her to magic until it was absolutely necessary. Emma was stuck somewhere in the middle, she wanted Bella to have a normal childhood, but equally didn't want her to ever feel like she had something inside herself that she couldn't control.

In the end they had decided that with both Emma and Regina teaching her light magic rather than dark, that it would be safe for her to begin learning to control it now, and that way it would be a part of herself that she grew up understanding and accepting.

So far the only magic she'd learnt to do though was changing the colour of things. Which was great when she turned Emma's bug bright pink, but less fun when she got annoyed at him and turned his hair green for a week. Both Mom and Ma refused to change it back because apparently he'd deserved it. He strongly disagreed.

"What kinda magic? What it do?" Bella asked, her voice full of breathless wonder.

Oh crap. He hadn't thought this through. Now what was he going to tell her?

"Well, when you have your finger up your nose, and you make a wish, it's much more likely to come true than if you just make a wish normally."

Bella gasped in amazement and then hastily stuffed a finger up each nostril, scrunching up her face in concentration. It took everything he had not to laugh at the sight. She opened her eyes and looked round the room. Then she removed her fingers from her nose and sighed deeply.

"It no work. There no shark."

Henry chuckled and reached out and ruffled her hair. He was pretty glad her wish hadn't come true if she'd wished for a _shark_. Weird kid.

"Perhaps your nose just isn't as powerful as mine," he said with a shrug.

Bella nodded sadly, as if that made perfect sense to her.

Just then Liliana bounded past the door, yapping loudly. Bella did that thing she did that was half a giggle and half a squeal, which even Henry had to admit was freaking adorable, and then ran out of the room after her sister.

Henry smiled and shook his head fondly. All things considered that conversation had gone better than expected, and hopefully now no one would ever find out that he'd been picking his nose.

Yeah, he was pretty sure he'd gotten away with that one.

**Author's Note:**

> Written from an Anon prompt on Tumblr: Could you do one where the three of them are just having a family day and chilling at home with their kids and Regina just watches as she sits and cuddles of the children and thinks about how happy and lucky she feels to have this moment of love.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Please feel free to send me prompts here or [on Tumblr.](http://magicsophicorn.tumblr.com)
> 
> Also if you're in Tumblr and a fan of Red Swan Queen I've just created a blog specifically for this ship, and am planning to run a Red Swan Queen Week in the future! [Follow it?](http://heckyeahredswanqueen.tumblr.com)


End file.
